Advancing Canada's Interests and Defending Canadian Values in the United States

2017 Thomas O. Enders Memorial Lecture on U.S.-Canadian Relations

The Honorable Andrew Leslie, Member of Parliament for Orleans and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Canada-United States RelationsModerated by Christopher Sands, Director of the Center for Canadian Studies

May 2, 2017

The United States remains Canada’s most important ally, according to The Honorable Andrew Leslie, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Canada-United States Relations. In a private talk at Johns Hopkins SAIS, Leslie discussed US-Canada relations as he gave the Thomas O. Enders Memorial Lecture, focusing on how the relationship will change under the Trump administration and modes of future cooperation between the two allies.

Leslie focused his talk primarily on trade, noting that the American and Canadian economies are highly intertwined as a result of NAFTA and massive trade flows between the two. He focused on the many ways in which Canadians and Americans benefit from cross border flows of goods and people, highlighting that it allows prices to remain low for consumers and producers to structure processes across the border, while both Canadian and American firms operate on either side of the border. Leslie also talked about how shared geography, history, and cultural similarities also bind the two nations. Therefore, the relationship merits further study and attention.

The talk concluded with broader comments on US-Canadian cooperation in security matters. Questions from the audience delved into environmental policy, free trade, and migration issues.